The Bird Table

Sally Doone is a successful prosecuting counsel. She is confident in her professional role, sure of her function in upholding the law. In her personal life she has less certainties - her husband is irritating her and her children seem to be closer to their nanny than their mother. Then the man she is prosecuting for suspected rape commits suicide after she has cross-examined him. A few hours earlier she had learned that a witness had come forward who could prove he had been framed, but Sally, sticking rigidly to the letter of legal procedure had not acted swiftly enough. Shaken by events, no longer so confident of her view of justice, she takes a few hours off and allows herself to let her hair down. She buys an expensive painting, attends a wine-tasting and decides to treat herself to a night at the Ritz. There she lets herself to be picked up and in her uncharacteristically uncontrolled state of mind she herself becomes a victim. Or is she as culpable as the accused? Or are they both victims of the system of justice she has spent her whole life believing in?